2o8 



NATURE'S CALENDAR 



September 22 



ets, and that the trees are populous with 

 locusts, whose stridulation keeps us awake 

 half the night to listen to their incessant 

 disputation over whatever it was that 

 kilty did or didn't. 



Mole crickets make a great part of this 

 noise, filling the air at night "with an 

 unceasing dissyllabic thrill from early 

 August till after frost." 



Ants become prominent now also, 

 swarming, as a rule, early this month. 

 Our most common ant is the typical little 

 red one {Formica saiigiimea), which also 

 exists in Europe and Africa. In this coun- 

 try it throws up hillocks often a yard in 

 diameter and eighteen inches high, hav- 

 ing many holes, which are entrances to 

 the formicary or home of the ant-com- 

 munity beneath the hillock, where there 

 is a labyrinth of galleries and whence 

 other galleries and tunnels radiate in all 

 directions. In such a formicary the work- 

 ers (and sometimes the winged ants, also) 

 hibernate, but all arouse themselves early 

 in the spring to take care of the eggs and 

 larvae, which have been produced the 

 previous autumn. Some species swarm 

 on some calm, sultry day in the course of 

 the summer, but the common little yellow 

 ant of our door-yard, whose rings of exca- 

 vated sand - grains decorate the spaces 

 between the stones of the garden-walk, 

 the big black ant that dwells in decaying 

 stumps and logs, and some others, wait to 

 swarm until this month. Thus the sunset 



September 23 



